The room was cold when the boys awoke the next morning. The sun had hardly risen and an icy breeze began to blow through the room as Mrs Potter cracked open the window-the most effective method, she had found, of getting the boys up and out.  

James had attempted to brush his hair, with minimal luck. Sirius pulled his hair up out of his face tiredly, not retaining the energy needed to make any kind of effort first thing in the morning. Peter and Remus took showers in a bid to try and wake up a bit, though it hardly helped at all. 

James, Sirius and Peter attacked breakfast hungrily while Remus picked at a single slice of toast. Mrs Potter obsessively re-filled his orange juice and made him 3 cups of tea, concerned about him turning ill. She was almost teary-eyed watching the four boys leave. Even now, she would reminisce on the good times she had at Hogwarts, it broke her heart to know that they were being robbed of that pleasure, even if only for a short time.

Arriving at John and Ianto's cottage the boys were given yet another cup of tea and made themselves comfortable, they didn't think they'd need to leave so soon what with it only being 7:15 am.

"You'll really have to come round some day Fleamont, Euphemia too!" Ianto spoke to Mr Potter's head in the fire.

"Of course Ianto, we'd love to!" He waved goodbye to the boys and disappeared.

"John's been out in the shed for nearly an hour already this morning." Ianto had his own tea in his hands and was now perched precariously on the edge of the coffee table, Sirius and Remus on the windowsill and Peter and James in armchairs. 3 cats had been roused from their seats at the, once peaceful, fire and were now looking suspiciously at the new guests. "I've no idea what he's up to, but he reckons it'll get you to school faster than my car can." He said looking exasperated.

"Wait, can't you just...?" James questioned, remembering Ianto's legillmency. 

"He's been blocking me out all morning, hardly said two words to me. Must be exhausting, mind, he's usually so bad a keeping me out that I can hear him from the kitchen." Ianto gasped suddenly. "I bet it's that bastard motorbike again!" 

At this, Sirius' face lit up.

Ianto had noticed. "Oh God not you too! You will never catch me on that death contraption." 

Remus, again, thought of how alike he and Ianto were. 

Ianto began asking about school while he pottered around dusting shelves and organising books. He seemed to grow in concern the more the boys spoke, even though they had only told the abridged story. It was quite clear that he was hearing more than he was being intentionally told. 

At 8 am John finally burst into the room, looking dishevelled and excited. 

"Guess what I've been doing all morning?" He asked without so much of a greeting.

"You've been messing around with that motorbike that should be sent to a blummin' skip." Ianto said with a kind of passing resentment.

"You're an angry little man." John joked his smile wide as ever. 

"How on earth do you plan on getting all 5 of you anywhere on that old thing?" Ianto pressed.

John tapped the side of his nose and smirked at Ianto. He frowned.

"That's absolutely not legal. He's put 2 side-cars on somehow." He said for the benefit of the boys. He looked around the room for a moment. James and Sirius were almost bursting at the opportunity to ride on a real motorbike, Peter was just thinking about how cool Ruby would think he was if she saw him with them. Remus couldn't even bear the thought of it. Another time, maybe, but not right now.

Ianto sighed in resignation, "Fine, take one of the side-cars off and I'll take Remus with me, I need to go shopping anyway, last time you went we ended up with 8 pints of milk, no bread and 2 pounds of cheese."

Remus breathed a sigh of relief and Sirius made a small noise of excitement.

Ianto and Remus headed off first. As he stood up Sirius brushed his hand and whispered low and quiet, knowing that no one but Remus would hear him, "I love you." Remus warmed inside and had to will himself not to blush, he caught Sirius' eye and quickly smiled a smile that said the same thing back.  

As Remus collected his bag, head swimming embarrassingly with young love, Ianto made his way over to John, who was still stood in the doorway. 

"Please be careful." Ianto pleaded quietly.

"I'm always careful." John smirked.

Remus followed the pair into the hallway.

"Mhmm" Ianto murmured dubiously before having to stand up on the tip of his toes to kiss John's cheek. 

John looked taken aback. Ianto smirked and gave Remus a sidewards glance. "I'm sure he doesn't mind." He whispered before leading the way out of the cottage. 

Ianto had an old, beaten car, but, somehow, it suited him. 

He was an average man in most respects, average height and build, brown hair, green eyes, a kind face. But there was something, something ever so slightly different about him that made him like no man you had ever met before. Maybe it was the way he held himself or the softness of his voice, maybe it was just that you knew, one way or another, that he was different. You could clearly tell that something else was swimming in Ianto's head by the was that he could look straight at you, but straight past you. But you trusted him, completely.

Remus slid into the passenger's seat and allowed himself, for a fleeting moment, to be concerned for Sirius' safety. He knew that John would be careful, he knew that they would all be fine, but that nagging part of his brain told him that they may not be. 

Ianto climbed into the driver's seat and frowned as the engine turned over for a long while.   

"Bloody thing...Oh! there we go." He muttered, clapping his hands together triumphantly when the car finally responded.

"Thank you for this." Remus said as they started off through the rough woodland path.

"Well, that's quite alright, don't blame you for not wanting to go on that thing." Ianto replied happily. "I'm awfully sorry, Remus, I'm being really rude. I'll try and keep out." He said, clearly having read his mind again. 

"I don't mind," Remus reassured. "there's not exactly any secrets in there anyway." He said passively. Remus actually found it somewhat comforting that he didn't have to explain how he felt, he didn't have to hide.

Ianto held a look of pity, but it was sad, unlike most looks Remus was accustomed to. 

"Really?" He asked quietly.

Remus was about to affirm when memories of the previous day came flooding back, followed by memories from his first few weeks at Hogwarts, memories from home, all the thing's he'd ever managed to hide.  

"I'm sorry!" Ianto said with a quickly snatched breath. "I'm so sorry-I, I'm just so used to John and the people at work..." 

Remus surprised himself by chuckling. "It's honestly fine! That doesn't affect me anymore, the important people in my life know the important things...and that's really all that matters." Ianto was stunned by Remus' maturity and dignity. 

Stopped at a red light, Ianto turned to Remus and smiled genuinely. "They'll be fine." He said, changing the subject swiftly. "He'll be fine." He added softly, not wanting to embarrass Remus, but also wanting to make it clear that Remus and Sirius could be exactly who they needed to be around him and John, they would surely be hypocrites in any other case. 

"The bike really is safe. John had an accident on it about, God, 7 years ago now. It wasn't his fault and it was nothing to do with the bike. It just scared me, you know? The thought of it happening again..." He trailed off.

Remus knew exactly what it was like to see loved ones in danger, only, in his case, he was the danger and, annoyingly, his loved ones seemed to quite enjoy it. 

Suddenly the radio crackled to life as if by its own will. The static voice of the host spoke through "...today's blast from the past, here's Alan Price putting a spell on you..." 'I Put a Spell on You' began to play and Ianto fiddled with the dial until the sound was clearer. 

"This song was playing on the radio the first time John and I spent a night alone together." Ianto reminisced fondly. "He found it so funny that he made everything he could charm dance around the living room. We were still finding bits and bobs running around the house weeks later. We were in so much trouble." He laughed at himself, comforted in his memory. 

Remus was reminded of the time he and Sirius had charmed James' pillows to change position every time he tried to lie on them. He had eventually given up trying to rest on them and instead struggled to sleep with the pillows bouncing on his head all night. 

He was now laughing along with Ianto, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Ianto was also watching the pillows dance in mind's eye. 

The rest of the car ride was spent in virtual silence, the music filling them both with a kind of simplistic joy. Remus was comforted in the fact that he would spend most of the day with his friends, he tried desperately to block out the thought of PE and James Aaron and the rest of the school. 

As they neared the school gates Remus could no longer avoid the tightening of his chest, the way his muscles tensed, the way his heart was suddenly drumming against his rib cage relentlessly. He hadn't felt nerves so intense for more years than he could bear to consider.

Ianto glanced nervously at Remus, as though he wished he didn't have to leave him. He pulled the car over before they reached the car park.

"Remus, are you alright?" He asked as tentatively as he could. 

"Yes." Remus let out a harsh breath, "Yes, sorry." he said shaking his head at himself, refusing to believe that he was actually acting so out of character.

"I wish there was something we could do..." Ianto said, more to himself than Remus.

"I'm just being stupid, we all have to adjust." Colour had risen to Remus' cheek in a fluster of embarrassment and shame. 

Ianto was about to argue when his face changed into a funny sort of smile, he motioned for Remus to look out of the window. As he did, he caught sight of Sirius in the mirror jogging down the path towards them. He flung the door open, hair tousled from the ride and face red from the bitter cold.

"Where have you been? We're all freezing our tits off out here!" He demanded, though his tone didn't quite match the smile that had drawn across his whole face in clear delight. Though, whether this was from the motorbike ride or seeing Remus was uncertain.

"Get in, I might as well park the car." Ianto laughed, knowing that John had decided to 'surprise' him by waiting for him. 

Sirius climbed into the back seat and immediately began recounting his ride to school.

"...Honestly, Moony,  it was basically the best thing I've ever done. It's like flying a broom, but it's not a broom and it's really loud and it's so fun. I am absolutely getting a motorbike." He was still chattering excitedly about the bike as they met the other three across the car park. 

John looked satisfied with Sirius' infatuation and excitement. Remus considered saying something very rude about Sirius' idea of his own bike which Ianto had to bite his lip to stop himself laughing at.

As they bade goodbye to John and Ianto (John promising to bring his bike back to pick them-Sirius-up) the four boys headed into the school building once again.

The white noise hit like a wall as they entered the atrium and the chaos of the day began to unravel. 

The boys sat at a table and began tearing pages from their books to make paper aeroplanes, figuring that there was no point in allowing reality to check in when they could just focus on causing the carnage they were used to. 

They hardly spoke at all in the 15 minutes they had left. James was focused entirely on the task at hand, focusing all of his energy into disruption rather than allowing premature anger to build inside. Peter, on the other hand, hardly knew what was going on as he was too preoccupied craning around in search of Ruby. Remus sat considering his day, looking on the bright side. After all, he only had to deal with James Aaron in form, and then potentially in a situation that he could be completely and utterly embarrassed in by whatever means seemed fit-for a whole hour. Really, what did he have to complain about? Sirius' anger was still present from the day before, but he had formulated a plan.

The bell rang and the four boys prepared to begin their day. James headed to the far side of the school alone, Sirius had motioned for him to go on without him. Peter and Remus hardly noticed Sirius following them. Peter turned down the hall and waved goodbye hesitantly. 

As Remus continued on forward Sirius matched his pace to walk beside him.

"What are you doing?" Remus asked, less out of curiosity and more out of detached fear. 

"I'm coming with you." Sirius replied as if it was obvious. 

"Why?" 

"Because I want to." 

Remus sighed, but gratefully, knowing full well that Sirius' mind could not be changed once it was made up, he had considered arguing but it really wasn't worth it. 

Arriving at Remus' form room the pair stood back from the crowd. They could see James Aaron, George and Ellie stood nearer the door and decided that it was best not to engage just yet. 

Remus and Sirius said nothing in the short time they were waiting. They could both feel people's eyes on them as they walked past, Remus turned his head away ever so slightly each time they did. Sirius finally caught Remus' eye and smiled. 

He hadn't meant to smile, it was a natural response. Being with Remus made him happy and he didn't show it often enough. 

"What?" Remus asked laughing, but also looking around worried as if something had happened that he hadn't seen. 

"I like you." Sirius said almost sheepishly.

"Oh," Remus said, not quite sure of what to do with this apparently new development. "well, that's good to know, I suppose."

"No, like, I like you," Sirius said as if it was obvious. "I like being around you. I like looking at you. I like every part of you. I really like you." He was quiet but passionate. 

Remus laughed quietly and blushed. "I like you too, Sirius." 

They wanted to take each other in their arms, they wanted to hold hands, they wanted to kiss. But they couldn't, they knew they couldn't. 

As they saw the teacher approach, Remus turned to walk towards the rest of the class, his hand brushing Sirius' as he did. Their hands wanted to meet, but Remus pulled his away before he could endorse his own fantasy. 

"Excuse me, you're not in my class." The teacher said pleasantly, but with clear confusion as Sirius followed Remus into the class. 

"I know." Sirius replied nonchalantly, he and Remus made their way to the back of the class, avoiding the snide comments from James and looks of pity from George. 

Sirius dumped his bag next to Remus and walked back down to the teacher's desk.

"Can I have a word please, Miss?" He asked as politely as he could manage. She looked oddly perplexed but followed him out of the room none the less. 

Sirius began talking without hesitation, not wanting to give anyone the opportunity to target Remus while he was alone. 

"Remus had a bad day yesterday. I suppose you can guess why. Idiots in your form class have proven just how horrible people can be, I'm not leaving Remus to put up with that on his own."

 Miss Carter was taken aback. "People in my form class? Who? I'll deal with this." 

"No. I'm sorry, but that will only make things worse. We can deal with this." Sirius sighed, already regretting what he was about to say. "Remus will hate me for saying this. He's not...well. I can't go into it, but he goes through enough without having to put up with any of this on his own. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to offer Remus the same chance that everyone else in this school has and just let him spend this time with someone he's known for the last five years, someone who isn't going to ridicule him and make him feel small." 

"O-of course...you're a good friend. But if this continues I need to know, we do not tolerate bullying here, and if there's anything I can do, just let me know." She almost looked choked up as she squeezed Sirius' shoulder.

"Thank you." Sirius nodded and followed her back into the class.

Taking his seat, Remus turned and gave him a look that said "explain" clearer than any words could. 

Miss Carter took the register meaning that Sirius had time to formulate his answer. He shouldn't lie, but how angry would Remus be?

Eventually, conversations started again and Remus turned back to Sirius with the same look as before. 

"I just told her that there are dickheads in this class and that I'm here now." Sirius tried to sound casual but Remus could see straight through him. 

"And?"

"And, don't hate me and I love you very very much?" Sirius said hopefully, but Remus' look remained.

"I told her that you deal with enough shit without having bullying little pricks on your back." Sirius hissed with venomous spite. 

Remus sighed and shook his head, frowning. "Why?" He asked hopelessly. 

"Because it's true. And, at least she won't start asking questions when you inevitably come in looking like shit on  Friday." Sirius was trying to fight his corner. He didn't want to upset Remus, but something had to be done.

Remus looked at Sirius for a moment, weighing up how he felt. In all honesty, he was too exhausted to care and glad to know that there may be a teacher on his side. 

"Okay." He nodded and let the subject go. 

The pair sat discussing the day ahead of them, mainly considering the likelihood of success in their paper aeroplane plan. They were able to laugh and joke, and it felt good. 

Soon, James Aaron began to make his way over to where they were sat, a look that could only be described as a shit-eating grin on his face. The teacher noticed almost immediately and demanded that he sit back down. Sirius had a suspicion that she knew exactly who was causing them trouble. 

Remus and Sirius both knew that this was the calm before the storm,  but were they going to make the storm, or was the storm coming to them?